Oral+Language

__ **Interest /Attitude Inventory Write Up** __ Jane is a fascinating third grade bilingual student with a big imagination and much to share about her home and school life. She resides in a large neighborhood in the suburbs of Plainsboro with her sister, father, and “e’ma”, which is Hebrew for Mother. She if fortunate not to have any chores to do at home which allows her more times to do one of her favorite things instead which is to write stories. She does not recall how many she has written because she keeps many of them in her head but as of late, she is recording her most recent story she entitles, //Not Yet, Not Now// about a girl who is part demon with horns and a tail. Aside from being a writer, she is also an avid reader all year round of her favorite genre, mystery books. She is so active in reading and writing in her free time at home because she does not watch a great deal of TV considering there is only one television in her house. When she does watch television though, her favorite show to view is called Codelioco. With her friends, Jane enjoys playing pretend games such as superheroes, although she did not know what super power she would want to have. She has no pets but does collect money from different countries which she is quite prideful in. She also takes swimming lessons on Friday afternoons and sings in her Hebrew school’s junior choir. Finally, the last thing Jane wants you to know about her is that she has “something wrong with her body” as she describes it. What’s wrong is that she has a lisp and seeks speech therapy in school to treat her inability to say “S’s” and “Th’s”. Prior to coming to the school in the states, she was enrolled in a inclusion preschool because of this disability, and when she did move and start school, she was assigned to a private speech teacher when she who she favored greatly as she gave her whistles as a good job treat at the duration of their sessions. She also has a newly developed “skin virus” and a recurring “foot virus” that she is troubled about but does not let it show. Jane has had some wonderful experiences thus far in her United States school. She had to think carefully about her favorite about it but finally decided that it was music class because she loved to sing and play the instruments. She explained all the different choirs there are at her synagogue and the ones in which she sings. She reads a great deal in school, and although she doesn’t think she is a skilled reader, her report card states otherwise with high grades in readers workshop and the teacher’s notes of “best in class”. She feels that good readers ask questions and that the best way to help a poor reader was to help them with hard words and read to them, but only until Jane feels she’s getting tired. She loves to read mystery books and is currently reading //Spy on Third Base//. She likes to write stories and mathematical explanations to the problems in class. She cannot recall who has helped her the most in school, but she does say that her mother helps her very much at home with homework at her desk. Jane is a phenomenal student with a passion for learning and a delight to peers, teachers, and family.

__ **Assessment Analysis** __ The purpose of the Interest /Attitude Inventory or Oral Language Assessment was to identify the students comfort level of their oral language in various settings and situations. It is crucial that students are in rich, safe, purposeful, social, communal, expertise classroom so that talk and language are challenged but comfortable. Children’s talk is so valued and interesting because “ … it is the primary system through which children learn about the world…Children use talk to facilitate their own thinking and learning in all subject areas, and to jointly construct meaning and knowledge with others. …It is a window into [children’s] knowledge and thinking. …Observing and documenting children’s talk reveals their knowledge of language functions and forms, their interactional competencies, and what they know about the world around them” (Owocki & Goodman, 49). Talking should be encouraged among students to enhance their conceptual growth while constantly being modeled and monitored by a teacher aware of the stages of oral development. “ The best way to plan instruction and determine comprehensible input is to understand what students are able to do and understand at different stages of the second language acquisition…For this reason it is important to continually asses students language development and adjust instruction accordingly” (Chen, 8). One way to assess student’s oral language proficiency is by providing opportunities for dialogue and discussion. Another strategy is to ask questions to signify the importance of reflection and process. Through questioning, dialogue and discussion, in the form of the “interest/attitude interview” sheet, a student received the opportunity to be evaluated in their oral language for the critical points above. The child, Jane, was removed from super Silent reading (SSR) to be assessed by myself in the hallway where both of us were seated at a student desk at approximately 9:15 a.m. until 9:45 a.m. on February 24, 2011. First I explained to her that I was going to ask her some easy questions about home and school and that we were going to play with my tape recorder. After testing and setting up the recorder. We began the formal questioning sequence with the content on the Interest /Attitude Inventory as instructed by Dr. McKool. Jane is a 3rd grader from who resides in the suburbs of Plainsboro. Jane’s primary language is Hebrew which she speaks regularly at home. Thus, she is continuing to study as an English Language Learner but more so, she works to overcome her speech disorder and social insecurities. Jane processes a lisp and has difficulty when pronouncing her “S’s” and “Th’s”. She receives speech therapy to correct these pronunciation problems on a pull out basis. Jane is also extremely insecure which is embodied in her speech as it is immature and unintelligent for that of a third grader. She will degrade her oral competencies because of her lack of self confidence. Where the insecurities stem from are unknown at the present moment but her display of such is without a doubt represented in her speech. The methodology behind this study was the “interest/attitude interview” as provided by Dr. McKool. Questions consisted both of activities at/ in home and school and feelings about both places and the people within them. The first set of questions, those about the student’s home life, were designed to uncover the student’s inputs and outputs of oral language in the assumed most familiar environment for children and why or why not they were oral here. The opposite set of inquires, those about school, were to identify areas where the child was most comfortable with language in terms of speaking, reading, and writing, and the student’s interactions with oral language and others in the classroom. Anecdotal notes were also recorded on the child’s gestures, facial expressions, and body language during the interview. The session was recorded on a Sony handheld video cassette recorder to better analyze and understand student’s speeches and their characterists. What was concluded from Jane’s oral language assessment, general observances, and interactions are unique for that of a students with so many speech concerns. Initially, I was impressed by her acute vocabulary and understanding of the English language despite being a new ELL. However, I came to find out from my cooperating teacher that Jane has been in the United States since at least kindergarten giving her four years to learn and perfect her English. That was when my teacher also informed me that her speech possessed the same qualities as an English language learner was because of her insecurities. Her social insecurities are the particular area in which she has the lowest self confidence and as a result, she incorrectly uses her speech and understanding of language so as to either fit in with the other students or give herself an excuse //not// to fit in. Some examples of her poor speech qualities include drawn out, slow paced responses, improper volume (too quiet), and some stuttering when beginning to answer. Her discomfort with herself can be seen in other, non oral ways as well including her disengaged eye contact, rigidity in body movements, and some non oral responses (shaking head to say no or yes). Her insecurities come out in forefront in large groups such as when she was selected to read her jot in class or whenever she is called on to answer a question. When asked to read her jot, she handed it over to me to read for her. When selected to answer a question she replies in almost an inaudible voice and with sinking posture. She feels extremely uncomfortable in front of her peers as opposed to one on one conferences such as the one I conducted with her. I did not see her confident and relaxed until the end of our discussion or with certain questions that I asked. It takes her time to get comfortable and I get the impression that she questions whether she even can be in certain situations or if she still has to put up the façade of poor language. As noted before, Jane’s primary language is Hebrew and it is spoken in her home. Despite the slight language barrier this causes, I was impressed by her fluency of tone and infliction in the appropriate places of her speech. I also marveled over her usage of upper level vocabulary, identified her print awareness (in naming to me places in Israel and in particularly the TelAviv) and recognized her knowledge of sight words as she used them often. She employs little gestures to explain what she means and often speaks in detailed sentences. Jane is a highly intelligent student who excels in reading and writing so for her to speak well in the ways that she did above only not to most other times, again because of her insecurities, is only adding to the social rejection from her peers. While Jane can control in which way she speaks, she does possess and language disability that she is diligently working to correct. Jane has a lisp which she identified and could explain. Her lisp lies in pronouncing “S’s” and “Th’s”. She states that she has been receiving treatment for this since starting school. In the beginning because she was also transitioning to speaking more fluent English, she was assigned a private speech teacher. When this teacher left she was placed into a regular speech program which she continues to take part in on a weekly pull out basis. Jane provided me with a great deal of information about herself while exemplifying interesting speech qualities for someone of her age and oral development level. The primary area where she needs an intervention is in her social skills and interactions. Since this is the root to her improper speech conventions, I feel that instructing Jane through perhaps character education, units of study around social interactions, and always modeling and practicing with her social norms and graces, she will gain more confidence in herself and in turn her speech. I might also assign her to a buddy, someone she can shadow to learn how to properly interact with her peers and simply just to have someone she feels comfortable around. Once she becomes comfortable with on peer, she may to begin interacting with the other students in a positive manner through comprehensible conversation and gracious actions. While trying to develop Jane’s self confidence, I would still continue on strengthening her oral fluency of pace and volume. I might choose texts with numerous passages of onomatopoeia so that she can gauge her volume in certain words. I may also explore a strategy with her of when I turn the imaginary volume dial, she has to read louder or if I cup my hand over my ear, it will enforce that I need her to speak louder. For both methods I would be keen on advising her that we want her to speak louder because we love what she has to say and has a lot of great idea, however we cannot hear them if she speaks quietly. As for strengthening her speaking fluency and speed, I suggest that she practice through different reading strategy and tools. For instance I would have Jane read aloud to a book or CD so that the recording can model for her an appropriate speaking pace. To pair with this or separately, I would have her read with a fluency phone constructed of PVC pipes or manufactured so that she can hear her own voice when she speaks. To continue building her self confidence with her peers I may employ the Neurological impress method. “Unlike partner reading examples described earlier, NIM has the student and more fluent model reading in unison at the same volume at first. The models voice gradually fades as the student becomes more confident” (Reutzel & Cooter, 95). The last method to implement to better develop fluency would be guided oral reading. Jane would benefit greatly from this as it is one on one instruction in which she is more comfortable and with a teacher who will give her guidance and feedback. “Guided repeated oral reading that included guidance from teacher, peers, or parents had a significant and positive impact on word recognition, fluency, and comprehension across a range of grade levels” (Reutzel & Cooter, 90). Jane also requires assistance in her speech because of her lisp. Which she receive speech therapy for this, teachers can always do more to support their students by designing instruction that has them working on such disabilities. One course of action to take would be to include a variety of word study words for Jane that start or end in “S” and those that also have the word blend “Th” in it. The teacher should also use words with “S” and “Th” in regular classroom speech to model for jane the sound and pronunciation. “The teacher serves as a model of language and must speak in the manner that is comprehensible to the students,. This may include speaking in shorter sentences at first with clear articulated speech” (Chen, 6). Jane should still attend speech classes so as to get more direct individual instruction and with the methods that may be outlined in a possible IEP. Overall, in assisting any child with any language challenges, the teacher should actively model proper English in comprehensible ways to students ( which can be done using the i: language students knows + 1: language slightly above what children can produce on their own), allow children to discuss with and question their peers on thoughtful issues, and to have students self assess while the teacher continually asses to identify where students are still struggling in their language development and to assure that they are using language constructively and meaningfully. These strategies and those individualized to Jane should immensely improve her oral language through confidence building, practicing fluency through reading, and continuing with speech therapy. Soon she will be a successful and //confident// English language speaker.
 * Purpose of Assessment**
 * Introduction of child and setting**
 * Methodology**
 * Descriptions of findings**
 * How to use these findings**


 * Notes**